Chapter 1138: The Warmest Season, Winter (10)

Objectively speaking, Sound of the Sun was not currently one of the most anticipated films in the North American film industry.

Of course, the recognition of Like The Sun, which I had performed while doing promotions for Supernova Dodgeball and SNL, was high.

Among Souffle and movie enthusiasts, it was already considered a must-watch film.

But for the general public, it was fair to say that the movie was not particularly noticeable.

It was the season leading up to Thanksgiving, one of America’s biggest holidays.

A new film from the world’s top animation studio was about to be released, and major blockbusters waiting for release, including West Hollywood, filled the schedule.

In this situation, it would be difficult for a biographical film about a jazz pianist to stand out.

Silver Screen, the distributor, was promoting it diligently, but it simply could not match the massive marketing campaigns that major blockbusters poured hundreds of millions into.

So another method was necessary.

「Since you mentioned World Art Studios, something just came to mind.」

At the Choice Awards red carpet event.

I smiled and told the interviewer.

「The first company that suggested Sound of the Sun was actually World Art Studios. At the time, one of their representatives told me this. “Asian movies don’t sell. So why don’t we change your father’s race?” Ahahaha!」

「……」

The interviewer froze, holding the microphone with a shocked expression.

「Uh… th… that……」

「Yes?」

「…Is that really true?」

「Yes. Of course, I was shocked when I heard that as well. I realized that the film industry could think that way.」

I smiled toward the camera.

「But thanks to that, another studio ended up taking on the film, and it was able to become something this wonderful. So in a way, I’m grateful to that person.」

「……」

The interviewer swallowed hard and held the microphone out again.

The expression on his face was that of someone who had just found an exclusive story.

「Was that the only thing you heard at the time?」

「No. There was one more thing.」

I tried to recall what happened back then…

No, I didn’t even need to try.

I remembered everything.

「They said that since people wouldn’t know the difference anyway if an Asian actor was replaced with someone from another country, we didn’t necessarily need to use an actor who was actually Korean.」

「……」

The reporter opened his mouth again.

Looking at the expressions of the cameraman and reporter, I smiled.

At least when it came to creating buzz, there was no need to worry.

A huge topic had been thrown into the film industry.

It was a bomb.

[Sunny reveals behind-the-scenes story of film production: “They told us to change my father’s race.”]

It was something that often happened before a film’s release.

Actors appearing on talk shows and revealing ridiculous behind-the-scenes stories from before production began.

But this time, the impact was different.

Because it was directly related to racism.

The explosive topic immediately swept across the internet.

Criticism poured out from everywhere.

And the people who became the most furious were NewBlack’s fans, Souffle.

……Are they insane?!

Changing the race of a character did happen sometimes.

But

{N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t}

that was mostly limited to fictional characters.

Not a real person.

And on top of that, they had suggested changing the race of someone’s father directly to his son.

The enraged Souffle began unleashing their power.

Hashtags climbed the real-time trends.

SNS posts spread.

Emails of complaint were sent.

And Koreans joined in as well.

[NewBlack Wooju reveals behind-the-scenes story before film production: “They suggested changing Sun Myeongju’s race at another studio.”]

Anyone who heard the news could not help but be shocked.

It was not just anyone.

It was Sun Myeongju.

Perhaps people had not known before.

But now, everyone knew how extraordinary he was.

How much of a mark he had left on jazz history.

Everyone was horrified by the actions of a Hollywood studio that had considered changing the race of someone like that.

Even in everyday conversations, people were saying things like:

“Did you see that? The Sun Myeongju movie story?”

“Are they insane?”

And so, a united attack from Koreans and Souffle began.

At first, World Art Studios responded indifferently.

Even when a Black actor revealed experiencing racism on set and caused controversy, major studios sometimes responded with a simple, “Oh, really?”

They knew better than anyone.

“It’ll die down in a few days. Let’s just wait until then.”

“Agreed.”

If they could ignore racism against Black people, then Asians, an even smaller minority group, would be even easier to dismiss.

But what they had overlooked was the influence of the person who made the statement.

A national idol loved by 50 million people.

A superstar who had drawn ten million viewers to a single live broadcast.

A person with connections to influential celebrities in popular culture, such as Haley Blue and Cold Brown.

“Um……”

“What?”

“It’s not dying down at all. It’s actually getting louder.”

「……」

Instead, World Art Studios’ silence only made people angrier.

“Apparently, people in Korea are even talking about boycotting World Art Studios.”

“They’re just saying that. Ignore it.”

“The pre-order numbers have been cut in half.”

「……」

A country that ranked among the top ten film markets in the world was now becoming a risk.

As the story spread to other Asian countries as well, the expressions of World Art Studios executives became increasingly anxious.

“At this rate, the domestic results aside, the global performance could become dangerous. We need to do something……”

“Damn it. How many fans does he have?!”

Asian American members of the film industry also began issuing statements through various organizations and demanded an explanation for the comments.

Naturally, the first thing World Art Studios summoned was their legal team.

An executive asked the group of lawyers gathered in the conference room.

“What do you think? Can we silence this?”

“It will be difficult. There is no appropriate legal basis, and there was no clause preventing the details of that conversation from being revealed. The more aggressively we try to pressure them legally, the worse it will look.”

“Hmm……”

That was why World Art Studios moved on to Step 2.

-Lemon.

-?

-Do you have a recording?

In California, whether or not the recording file was legally admissible did not matter.

World Art Studios contacted Lemon Entertainment, wondering if they could deny everything if there was no evidence.

But after probing them, they became convinced.

They have something.

They judged that denial would be impossible.

So they moved to the final stage.

“Chris.”

“Yes.”

Chris Finn.

A talented employee in charge of the early planning stages of productions at World Art Studios.

The executives informed the silver-haired middle-aged man.

“You’re fired.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’ve worked hard until now. While you wait here, security will bring your personal belongings. Return your employee badge when you leave.”

“Excuse me???”

Chris Finn stared at the executives with wide eyes.

The same people who had once treated him like a star employee now showed no emotion.

His eyes filled with disbelief.

No…… this……

It was completely unexpected.

Originally, he would never have been fired over this.

Back in January, NewBlack was a rising rookie group in America.

They did not have enough influence to create this level of controversy.

But now, with the massive success of Overcooked and Supernova Dodgeball combined, NewBlack had become one of the most famous groups in the world.

The global charts were already shaking because of Overcooked.

「……」

Chris Finn remembered Sun Wooju’s expression during that interview.

A bright smile.

But beneath that smile, he had felt something like a volcano erupting.

As if he was saying:

I will never forget this.

His mind went blank.

I misjudged.

He never imagined NewBlack would become this powerful.

He thought they would simply remain one of many hot boy bands……

But no matter what he thought, no matter how much he regretted it, it was already too late.

“Th…”

Chris Finn was escorted out of the company with a devastated expression.

And.

While one person’s future became uncertain, World Art Studios released an official statement.

[We express our deep respect for Sun Myeongju, who left a great mark on the history of popular music, and offer our sincere apologies to his son, Wooju.]

[…We would also like to inform you that the employee responsible for the problematic comments is no longer employed by World Art Studios.]

It was the handling expected from a major film studio.

After the clean statement, Souffle stopped their attacks and nodded.

Then, as they returned to normal and celebrated NewBlack winning multiple awards at the Choice Awards—

Wooju’s words created an unexpected butterfly effect.

“Did you see that? The comment saying Asians could just use actors from any country?”

“I saw it too.”

It was the many international actors working in Hollywood.

Those bastards! It wasn’t just me.

After coming to Hollywood, they began sharing the ridiculous experiences they had gone through.

Ignorance born from a uniquely American lack of interest in other countries.

As actors began sharing their experiences as interesting stories, a movement started forming.

Whenever they talked about it in interviews or tweets, they began with the same phrase.

The result was simple.

Sound of the Sun’s recognition had skyrocketed.

People who had never even heard the title now knew the name because of the loud and provocative news.

All of it happened because of a single comment.

And Sunny himself calmly accepted World Art Studios’ apology.

[I received a sincere apology from World Art Studios.]

A handsome man smiling calmly in another interview.

[When I heard that the studio’s position was different from the personal comment made by that individual, I accepted that. I’d be lying if I said those words didn’t hurt at the time, but the past is the past, isn’t it?]

The public admired his calm attitude.

If it were me, I would have been furious……

He’s so composed.

How can someone be that calm?

The great sages I know.

They are younger than me, but sometimes they make statements that seem like they have understood the secrets of the world.

They live downstairs.

And.

Among everything they have ever said, the one thing I remember most was this.

That’s right.

A gentleman’s revenge takes a very long time.

Looking at the endless stream of domestic and international articles, I burst out laughing.

“Hohohoho.”

“Hohohoho!”

“Hoheuheuheuhehaha!”

“Hahahaha!”

My younger brothers and I burst into laughter.

Especially Ri Hyuk.

Unexpectedly, he seemed to be enjoying this the most.

“Hehehehehe!”

What a silly guy.

It was probably because this was the kind of justice being served that he liked the most.

“…You really like this?”

“Sometimes I imagine it. Revealing the people who treated us badly when we were rookies and getting revenge.”

“Hmm. I do that sometimes too.”

“So it feels like one of those fantasies actually came true.”

Others felt the same way.

“Should we open champagne or something? I feel so refreshed.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to wait a little longer, Director?”

I laughed while stopping Director Kim Bora, who already wanted to open a bottle of champagne.

The Korean staff who participated in this film, as well as the people who had attended that meeting back then, all looked relieved.

Seokhwan hyung said.

“I can’t tell you how shocked we were back then. They suddenly suggested changing the race and nationality of the actor.”

“Agent-nim was flipping them off under the table back then. Imagine how furious everyone must have been inside.”

Considering that 90% of the staff who gathered for this film came after hearing about that incident, their reactions were understandable.

One of the staff members spoke with a moved expression.

“But honestly, it’s all thanks to you, Wooju.”

“Huh?”

“They never would have apologized. They only apologized because someone as famous as you spoke up and they had to pay attention. Hollywood people don’t apologize over things like this.”

“Really?”

“There are people who said audiences wouldn’t know the difference if a Black role was replaced with another actor, and they’re still running companies just fine.”

“……”

They said it was possible because the person who made the problematic comment was not a particularly high-ranking executive, combined with my own influence.

But honestly, it did not matter much to me.

Getting revenge for the humiliation back then was satisfying, though…

“Kyahhahaha!”

…very satisfying, actually.

But that was not the only reason I brought it up.

If it would not help the film’s success, I would never have mentioned World Art Studios in the first place.

“It’s only the beginning.”

“……?”

Biju tilted his head.

“What’s only beginning, hyung?”

“Promotion.”

I explained to everyone looking at me curiously.

“I don’t know everything about promotion, but I think promotion is one huge current.”

The promotion I imagined was creating waves.

Like waves rolling toward a beach.

If you splash around hard enough in a bathtub, it creates ripples.

And if you splash in the right direction, those ripples can become waves.

Promotion should work the same way.

Like a wave reaching everyone.

“So you need to create a flow.”

Until now, Sound of the Sun had no real narrative surrounding it.

But by mentioning World Art Studios, I had created one story.

A narrative about marginalized groups.

I explained.

“From my perspective, Sound of the Sun is difficult to promote through the film alone. It’s different in Korea or Japan, where my father’s name alone carries huge weight, but North America isn’t like that.”

Unlike countries where my father’s name itself could sell the movie, people here had little interest in him.

Silver Screen had cut the promotional budget excessively, but objectively speaking, it was still a difficult movie to sell.

No matter how much they advertised it as a great musical film with amazing music, the public would not immediately care.

A good product means nothing if people do not feel the need to use it.

Of course, word of mouth could solve that later.

But the biggest challenge was creating a flow that made people want to see the film.

“So I looked at the patterns when non-English films succeeded or won awards in Hollywood.”

Films that swept the Academy Awards.

Films that achieved incredible commercial success in America.

They all had one thing in common.

A theme.

The point was to create a conversation.

“A musician who had never received proper attention. A Korean star who was famous but still occupied a position where Hollywood once suggested changing his race. A star who was not unknown, but was treated like one.”

I smiled.

“That’s why I mentioned World Art Studios. I thought it would be good to create that kind of current. Hollywood has moments like that. Times when people think, ‘This year, we need to pay attention to films about Black people, about Asians.’ Something like that.”

“……”

“We’re going to create that moment ourselves.”

Simply saying, “Haha! Our movie is fun!” would not work.

We had to be proactive.

While explaining that we needed to use every possible method to promote the film, everyone looked at me strangely.

“……Why are you all looking at me like that?”

“The thing is.”

Junghyun spoke.

“I don’t know if it’s because I was moved by your father’s movie.”

“Yeah.”

“But I really think you and your father are alike. Especially when you were talking about creating a flow just now.”

“……?”

Everyone smiled as if they agreed with him.

I only tilted my head in confusion.